Fauna of Summerset: The Greatfly [I'm just gonna start calling this "The Weirder Scrolls" for now]

[This is a continuation of my mostly altmer-based lore stuff based on Tamriel Rebuilt, The "old" lore, and some of the cooler stuff from ESO. Side note: if anyone knows what I'm referencing in the quote below, you get bonus points.]

Greatflies

“Our wisdom flows so sweet. Taste and see.”

Like all aedric spirits, dragons evolve through mythopoeic culture-engines. Unlike the apocalyptic gluttons of the north, or the megalomaniacal drakes adopted by the Imperials from the Eastern Antimer, the Greatflies of southern Tamriel are graceful, magical, and posess a deep, insectoid intelligence.

Their insect psychology is incompatible with that of men and mer. Their actions, motivations, and beliefs seem entirely unknowable, and their speech pattern is difficult even for the Altmer to dissect. They possess a hive-mind that they share with their “children”: swarms of lesser flies that wander the land, gathering data. This is their only consistent motive: to gather information and memories. As such, they are natural enemies of Hermaeus Mora and Vaermina. Typically, the lesser flies can be seen “drinking” water from ponds and lakes, before draining the liquid from nearby fauna, carrion, or stray children. They then fly back to the remote hives of their masters, where they huddle together, shake rapidly and begin to glow, at which point they regurgitate beautiful, viscous rainbows of honey-like nectar.

https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_super/11131/111312061/6039228-2837053914-eeb84.jpg

The Altmer and Bosmer view these creatures the same way the mannish races view their own drakes: with fear and reverence. The wisest and most powerful Kinlords have been known to befriend them, or at least form a grudging respect and an eternal bond. They keep a single fly in their throne room as an advisor, and in emergencies they’ll send it back to the hive to summon its master. During the Reman-Wars, several Kinlords rode on the backs of greatflies, meeting Reman’s forces in the sky.

The origin of the greatfly is unknown. In general, dragons are thought to come from The East, born in the next kalpa to bring change to the last. Greatflies, by contrast, seem more concerned with gathering the knowledge of the present, and hoarding it within their blood-honey.

Recent theories claim they came out of The West: a kalpa destroyed by the hands of man rather than drake. Whether the greatflies failed in their cosmic duties, somehow “went rogue”, or if the actions of the Yokudans went according to their plan, is unknown.