Magnum Mysterium Thalmori: The Daughter of Magnus

Disclaimer to the Reader: After a thorough scrying of your temporal actions by the scrolls, you have been selected to receive one of the greatest mysteries of our order. Do not take this as an honor. Remember that everything you have done under the sun is essentially vanity (ALL that is of worth is beyond that orb.) However, you have shown potential usefulness to our designs. Thus, we have bent your soul using the most recent developments in tonal architecture. You are now unable to oppose our will. If you try to do so, we can easily erase you from the entirety of the dragon's path.

To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison.

This is the creed of the justiciars. It is a partial truth and therefore a lie.

After the beginning and exodus, Magnus looked down on arena and wept at the suffering of Man and Mer. His designs had been spitefully corrupted by the great enemy who delights in competition among races. Magnus so loved his children that he sent his only daughter, the Breaker of Dawn, to undo his mistake and force the wheel to change directions. This was the greatest love that the sun has ever shown us, even greater than the gift of Magicka, for his precious daughter was damned to suffer through the depths of hell to reach us. She has ordained the Thalmor to watch over us as she makes her journey, misguided and prejudiced as they are. When she reaches us, she will burn the zombie corpse of the enemy and take us home.

This is the creed of the New Presbyters, the predominant faith among the submer inhabitants of the Blessed Aldmeri Dominion (may it reign until forever is no more). The altaltmer and the justiciars look upon it as a useful lie for placating the masses (which is funny because that is exactly how the high council views the lies we tell THEM).

Both of these deceptions build upon pieces from the greatest truth our order possesses. We willingly leaked such myths in order to bring our designs to fruition. We received the real truth at the end of the third era when the walls to oblivion were thin.

When Meridia most-merciful came to us, we did not recognize her. Wounded by the wrath of Dagon, we looked for a warrior to save us. Able to show her true form as the liminal barrier wavered, Meridia was the most wretched creature we had ever seen. We saw that the light of the sun's daughter was her blood and her wounds could never be healed. We wept as she told us her story because we realized it was our own.

Meridia's recollection of time before the dawn was all mist.

Meridia could not remember why her father had cast her from Aetherius, only that she could never return. Wandering and afraid, she set up a beautiful tent in the seas of oblivion. This offered some shelter, but the winds of Padhome are strong.

Meridia was resilient and sought a way out of her misery. Possessing the plans of Magnus, she believed that the dead drum could be turned into a harp and Nirn and its surroundings remade. Unable to get close to the instrument, she was pleased to find that a tribe of Daedra worshippers had begun to inhabit the heartlands.

Modifying the architect's designs, the lady of light guided the faithful to construct White Gold but she was horribly deceived. Before it could be tuned, the tower was taken and used by the lesser race to steal Auriel.

Realizing that the forces of Nirn were too strong to reshape, Meridia surrendered. She then swore to work with the flow of nature and took up the mantle of vanquisher of the undead.

This was what Meridia wanted Nirn's allies to believe, and she played the charade well as she developed her true plans in secret. When she needed to, she enjoyed playing out her rigid role as a daedric prince. Slaughtering the undead, in fact, felt like accomplishing her designs on a smaller scale.

Meridia saw herself as a corpse that had lingered past its time. Escape was all she desired. Umaril, half-daedra and half-mer, was the key she needed. Using this link and her Magnian knowledge, she reverse-mantled herself to our people. Sharing a soul with us, we could now offer her release. She then waited for the perfect opportunity to teach us the secret to death. She now knew that she couldn't modify the plans of Magnus, but Nirn is much easier to destroy when you know where the screws are.

To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison.

The wisest Altmer know that we are not truly superior to man (though this is a useful lie to tell our warriors). Like Meridia, we have just had more time to realize that all existence outside of Aetherius is suffering.