From Calinor to the Thalmor: a Socio-Animical History of Early 4E Summerset Literature (4E 1 – 4E 22) Vol.2

By Marcienne Blosh

The Illusionist (4E 13)

In 4E 13 the celebrated Altmer author Rinlith Rango published the monumental The Illusionist, a three volume novel of extensive length. The argument of the novel shall be abridged here: when various unrelated people start going mad and violent, trying to kill anyone on sight until killed, an investigator named Lucano starts doing inquiries to solve the mystery. After a long and arduous investigation he discovers that behind the murders is an expert alchemist who has distilled enraging spells into potion form and poisons the victims aided and hidden by clever disguises and Illusion spells. But the relationship or motive between the murders or what appearance the murderer really has is still a mystery. A trap is laid, the killer falls for it and is arrested, interrogated and finally executed. The following excerpt is from the interrogation scene, when he is asked about his motive:

Crime. Senseless crime. Crime that benefits nobody. The instilment of terror and despair. The laying of the foundation for a new Empire. An insecure, anarchical, titillating Empire whose fundamentals are the uttermost destruction of everything. An Empire built on the noble ideals of paranoia and hate, to drive us to our true primal selves, far away from imposition. This infernal game of maybes and doubt is my motive and my last will.

There is a lot to unpack just from this excerpt. The character of the Illusionist could be interpreted as an expression of the feeling of Summerset Altmers towards the Third Empire as well as a retracing of their own foundational myths. The “crime” exposed in the monologue could be a socio-animical expression of either the Altmer blood spilled in the Tiber Wars or, more metaphysically, the First Crime, the betrayal of Lorkhan that bound the Ehlnofey, and by extension the Altmer, to the world. Thus the “terror and despair” and the “destruction of everything” may refer to the destruction of the traditional Altmer ideology of unassailable superiority after their incorporation on the Empire or the concept of death, mortality and loss of divinity. The phrase “true primal selves” may be a mockery, for the Empire-representing Illusionist thinks that an universal primal state is one of savagery while the primal state that the Altmer think they have is one of divinity, making it the representation of an inferior human imposing their wretched nature on the superior pure-natured elf. By contrast the “imposition” may refer to the complex traditional customs and worldview of the Altmer. Finally the “infernal game of maybes and doubt” could be an unperceived reference to the “Gray Maybe”, Nirn. The implication is that the Empire (and by extension humanity) has the metaphysical objective of setting up and maintaining the set of rules (i.e a “game”) that bind the Altmer and deny their claim to godhood. Thus the murders that the Illusionist carries out in the novel can be interpreted as the physical and metaphysical crimes that humanity has committed against the Altmer to create their Empire or realize their worldview.

On the other hand it cannot be discarded the interpretation of this fragment as a socio-animical anticipation of the Third Dominion and the Thalmor rule. The “crime” becomes quite literal: murders, harassments, executions, persecutions and all the standard fare of the Thalmor. The “Empire whose fundamentals are the uttermost destruction of everything” is a sentence perfectly applicable to the Third Aldmeri Dominion, if we were only to add “human” after “everything”. The phrase “true primal selves” becomes positive in this context, promising a return to divine nature through an “infernal game of maybes and doubt”, the unfounded assumptions one has to make in order to embrace Thalmor ideology.

The ending of the novel is remarkable. After getting executed, Lucano goes to his home and begins laughing while starting to cast an illusion spell on his wife. The Illusionist is not an individual but an entity that after being defeated always comes back stronger. Just like the Empires of Men, just like the Aldmeri Dominions.

Aurialia (4E 17)

Rinlith Rango’s Aurialia is one of the most popular fantasy novels in Altmer literature. Although written before the Thalmor takeover, which would lead to the exile of its author, the Third Dominion has, according to some sources, promoted it incessantly as a literary landmark and an instructive tale of almost mandatory reading. Indeed Aurialia is an influential and excellently crafted text, which draws from the traditional canons of Altmer fantastical literature while introducing thematic innovations from unexpected inspirations and dignifying its often disregarded genre.

The plot is set in Aurialia, an enormous city divided in two: an over-world city where the Mer live and a subterranean city where the Mereducks habitate (the Mereduck is a traditional staple of Altmer fantasy as a stand-in for the “Good Other”). While the Mer live a life of comfort and opulence as the rulers of the city, the Mereducks survive in misery. When Rederil, son of the city-estate’s king, wanders by accident into the subterranean city of the Mereducks he meets with a Mereduck prophetess called Airma, who reveals to him that he is the Artifex, the prophesized hero who will unite Mers and Mereducks. However, before that can be revealed to anyone he must reflect about his status in solitude. Rederil then retires himself in his home to meditate.

While Rederil meditates, severed from the outside world, an evil Clainrohe (the stand-in race for the “Bad Other”), with the intention of destroying the city, kidnaps Airma and, using profane magic and technology, turns a brass-woman of his creation into a perfect copy of her. He then sends the false Airma to incite the Mer to become complacent and decadent, and to destroy the Mereducks’ faith in the arrival of the Artifex, prompting them to rebel and destroy the Heart of the City. While the Mereducks celebrate the destruction of the Heart, their underground city is also being destroyed because of it. Blaming Airma of the ruin of their homes they start searching for her. The real Airma, who has managed to escape from the nameless Clainrohe, is persecuted through the streets of Aurialia by her fellow Mereducks who capture her and plan to burn her alive. Just before burning her, Rederil appears bringing with him Clainrohe and the false Airma, both tied up. He reveals to the Mereducks all that has happened and they burn the real “bad guys” instead. Rederil is proclaimed by all, including his kingly father, the Artifex who shall lead Aurialia to greatness.

The most shocking thing about Aurialia is its foreign influence. I still remember being a young student of Historical Textology and going through the initiation ritual of reading (as opposed to understanding) a smuggled copy of the 36 Lessons of Vivec and trying (and failing) to explain their meaning to my laughing peers. For those of us who have gone through this hazing rite the figure of the false Airma reminds us of a certain netchiman’s wife’s simulacrum. For those of you unfamiliar with the Lessons it might remind you of mighty Numidium. All of us that have had the pleasure to speak with a New Temple priest will have been told over and over again how great the Nerevarine, a reincarnation of the unifying hero Nerevar, was when he destroyed the Heart of Lorkhan and burned down Dagoth Ur in the fiery lava of Red Mountain. The underground city with a race reduced to misery will also seem eerily familiar to those who have read Professor Calcelmo’s translations of Falmer texts. Given that the Dwemer have not let us much to read, it is almost undeniable that this novel has a strong Dunmer influence. Which begs the question, how has a novel with such a strong foreign inspiration (and Dunmer influence at that!) has had so much acceptation amongst the Thalmor?

The key lies in the ulterior message of the novel, the one that the “collective animus” of the Altmer picked up: elven unity against the common enemy, with the Altmer at the forefront. The stand-ins are quite easy to perceive for the analysing eye: the superior and detached Mer are the Altmer, the Mereducks are the elven races who descend from the Old Ehlnofey and the Clainrohe are the latest incarnation of the permanent ancestral enemy: humankind. This is not a new discovery, in this regard Aurialia follows perfectly the canons of classical Altmer fantasy. The key to understand the ultimate message of the novel, and how it is conveyed, is how the characters representative of each race (Rederil, Airma, the nameless Clainrohe, the false Airma) are treated and how is their race displayed.

Let’s start with Rederil, a Mer of noble descent and fulfiller of an ancient prophecy. He spends most of the novel meditating, and is as detached as one can get. He clearly transmits an aura of unassailable superiority over the rest of the main characters. Nothing fazes him and his stoicism is permanent, emanating a sensation of stern divinity and power. His character embodies the highest virtues of the Altmer. By contrast the rest of the Mer are a stand-in for the vices and laziness of the Altmer elites. Expensive parties, monstrous mansions and decadent art, all of them make an appearance in the novel. The worst offender in vice and laziness is Rederil’s father, the King of Aurialia, who is an animical expression of the monarchy. In the novel there is an implicit rejection towards the traditional monarchical structures of power and the elites that the Thalmor seem to share (or at least seem to pretend to share) and will exploit in order to claim power.

Airma is a character who is attributed mysticism, but not a connection to the divine. Although she is young and called a “prophetess”, she fulfils better the role of the wise old woman. She is more a distinguished person who always believed in the Artifex and preached his name than a religious figure. However she is respected among the Mereducks and stands out among them “like a lily among thistles”. The role she adopts in the novel is incredibly passive, she exists to tell the hero he is the hero, get kidnapped, get persecuted and finally getting saved at the last minute. In general the Mereducks, who are a stand-in for the Bosmer and the Dunmer, adopt a very passive role. They are seen as a flock, a mass, easily messed with and prone to mob mentality. Both Airma and her brethren seem to be hopeless by themselves needing a leader from the outside, the Artifex, to guide them. They are depicted as if needing a brain to control their arms.

There is only a single Clainrohe in the entire novel, and he rests without name. His aim is the destruction of Aurialia, but no motive is provided. He embodies pure destruction and evil, he is completely devoid of any redeeming trait. Clever and intelligent yet foolish, he devotes every fibre of his being to bring Aurialia down and its citizens with it. Not since The libel of the Ruts was seen such a Clainrohe so devoid of redeeming traits. If the Clainrohe has been used in Altmer literature as a short-hand for humankind, this latest incarnation is certainly worrying and portrays a “collective animus” with a decidedly and quite explicit anti-human bias.

The character that seduced, and still seduces, the imagination of readers is the false Airma. A brass woman capable of mimicking a living one, created to entice and pervert in order to bring chaos and destruction. To an Altmer reading this novel, the character of the false Airma would have conjured in his mind the Numidium and its siege of Alinor. Indeed the choice of representing the false Airma as a brass-woman commanded by the stand-in of humanity is an animical expression of doom. Aurialia can be interpreted as a metaphorical retelling of the siege of Alinor, only changing direct violence for subtlety and subterfuge and a “bad” ending for a “good” one.

The Thalmor have had no problem in promoting a novel which draws from second-hand Dunmeri tropes and myths in order to cement their power. As long as it promotes their ideals, they don’t mind. Their propaganda aspires for them to be seen as the Artifexs, the uniters of Mer against Men. By this point Altmer literature is not only displaying their resentment towards the Empire and traditional Altmer rule, but it is also displaying a socio-animical programme and ideology. That the author of Aurialia and The Illusionist, Rinlith Rango, was a staunch anti-Thalmorian, proves that, more than the Thalmor contaminating the consciousness of the Summerset Altmers, it was the “collective animus” of the Altmer empowering the Thalmor.

To be concluded in Volume 3