The (Failed) Ascension of the Falmer

I've been thinking about the Falmer lately and their interaction with the Dwemer.

The common theory is that the Dwemer blinded the Falmer via some sort of poison concocted from cave mushrooms as a means of obtaining slave labor. Possibly to take care of their underground structures or mine for Aetherium.

The Falmer agreed to this simply because they had no other choice. They were defeated by the Nords and had no where else to turn to.

That would be extremely malicious of the Dwemer to do and would make it one of the worst atrocities in all of Elder Scrolls. Possible but I think there's something deeper. Why would the Dwemer need Slave Labor when they had mechanical servants who were already completely obedient?

I want to direct you to a piece of dialogue where Knight-Paladin Gelebor mentions the use of a Toxin to blind his people. But he uses the word "supposedly" as if he doesn't directly know.

That makes sense though, considering he is in an isolated Chantry and had to rely on second or third hand information. But it leads me to think that maybe there is something more to the story.

>What turned your people into the Betrayed? "I've often asked myself that very same question. The blinding of my race was supposedly accomplished with a toxin. Certainly not enough to devolve them into the sad and twisted beings they've become."

Even more interesting is that he doesn't believe a simple toxin would be enough to devolve the Falmer into feral monsters. Now we can say he just didn't understand the potency of the poison but I think there is something deeper.

That's when I looked into Calcelmo's tablet in the quest Hard Answers. The translation can be found here thanks to Lady Nerevar.

>And so it was that your people were given passage to our steam gardens, and the protections of our power. (literally “protection of our mathematics”)

>Many of your people had perished under the roaring, snow-throated kings of Mora, and your wills were broken, and we heard you, and sent our machines against your enemies, to thereby take you under.

>Only by the grace of the Dwemer did your culture survive, and only by the fifteen-and-one tones did your new lives begin.

>We do not desire thanks, for we do not believe in it. We do not ask for gratitude, for we do not believe in it.

>We only request you partake of the symbol of our bond, the fruit of the stones around us. [lit. “we only ask you to accept”] (literally “the fruit of our stones”)

>And as your vision clouds, as the darkness sets in, fear not. Know only our mercy and the radiance of our affection, which unbinds your bones to the earth before, and sets your final path to the music of your new eternity.

It definitely seems like the Dwemer thought they were doing something good for the Falmer or atleast they were making it seem that way.

I want to draw attention to two lines in particular.

>by the fifteen-and-one tones did your new lives begin

>which unbinds your bones to the earth before, and sets your final path to the music of your new eternity

[Also it would be worth looking over this amazing thread here. It describes the Music of the Aurbis and it's fantastic.] (https://www.reddit.com/r/teslore/comments/1oybze/aurbis_the_musical/)

I believe the Dwemer thought they were uplifting the Falmer. Or that they could be uplifting them.

They saw an opportunity. The Falmer needed help and had no one else to turn to. The Dwemer saw this as a chance to test something far too dangerous to ever try out on their own people. Something so risky they were too afraid to attempt it before now.

I think the Dwemer were attempting to give the Falmer a perception of the Tonal Structure of the universe. To allow them to directly perceive it as easily as we see with our eyes.

And then to unbind them from the Earth Bones so that they could use this new level of perception to manipulate the Tones directly.

The Dwemer had a vast understanding of Tonal Architecture but it always required the use of Tools to manipulate it.

Can you imagine if they could directly interact with the frequency of the Aurbis without the need of tools? To be able to write their own music without the need of instruments?

But how did the Dwemer go about actually performing this experiment? I'm not quite sure. Whether or not a Toxin was actually used to Blind the Falmer is hard to say.

Two things seem to pop out to me though.

First that the experiment required a vast amount of willing subjects. I'll come back to this.

For context, it's thought the Dwemer had some way of communicating long distances. And it's thought that this was accomplished via a neural network facilitated by telepathy. Taken from UESP.

>The Dwemer purportedly possessed an ability that was known as "The Calling", which seems to have been similar to telepathy. It allowed the Dwemer to communicate with each other over great distances. It has been suggested that, in the last moments before they disappeared, Lord Kagrenac used The Calling to summon all of the Dwemer people and rally them to carry out his plans to transcend the Mortal Plane.

Second, the existence of the Elder Scroll in Blackreach.

We know the Dwemer had a way of deciphering Elder Scrolls without going blind by using something called a Lexicon and the machine we find the Scroll inside of in Blackreach.

But what did the Dwemer use it for? Why was it there at all?

I propose they used the Elder Scroll in an effort to gift them an understanding of the Music of the Aurbis.

They knew that if a single Falmer read the Elder Scroll, they would simply be blinded and that was it. A single mind couldn't handle gazing into Eternity.

But if they found a way to connect the Falmer into a Neural Network of their own, first. The combined willpower of the entire population of the Snow Elves could withstand the power of the Elder Scroll and achieve enlightenment.

I think this is what the Dwemer hoped would happen. But unfortunately it did not. They failed. Not only did it blind them but it drove them insane. An entire race of people gazed into Eternity and they devolved into a feral group of monsters.

If the experiment had succeeded then the Dwemer would have done it to themselves.

But since it didn't they took what they learned and moved on to their next experiment.

TL:DR The Dwemer wanted to give the Falmer a perception of the music of the universe but failed and devolved them in to feral monsters.